matzo toffee

Soooo remember how in my tortilla espanola post I mentioned I had a few unfinished posts I promised to publish? This is one of them. So, pretend that it's Passover. Yes that was over a month ago, thus the pretending. Picture me and 2 friends celebrating it with a nice lil Passover lunch. There was matzo ball soup from Jon, and lamb stuffed tomatoes by Ang. And as usual, I rounded it out with a sweet treat: matzo toffee! See the 3 layers... matzo cracker, toffee, and chocolate:

Not gonna lie, this is kinda addictive. It's salty, sweet, crunchy, and in this case, kosher! Plus it was a breeze to make (if, ya know, you're used to making candy... but this is kinda cool because it doesn't require a candy thermometer.) A very popular variation is using saltines instead of the matzo, and I look forward to making that version. Make them for the holidays. Give them to friends. They will like you more. Promise :)

Matzo Toffee
adapted from Turntable Kitchen

6 Passover friendly matzo crackers (or enough to fit a baking sheet)
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp fleur de sal
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups chocolate chips (I used both semisweet and dark)

Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, overlapping over the edges. Arrange matzo crackers into one even layer so edges are touching - you'll probably have to break some to make it fit. Set aside.

Melt butter over medium heat, and mix in brown sugar and salt. Bring to a boil, and cook, stirring, for 3-4 minutes. Take off heat and stir in vanilla. Pour over the matzo and use a silicone spatula to spread into an even layer over the crackers. Bake for 5 minutes or until it looks bubbly.

Take out of oven. Spread chips over the toffee. Let sit for 2-3 minutes or until you see them starting to melt.

Spread the chocolate in an even layer. Allow to cool completely. Break into pieces. Eat!

~ ~ ~ ~

One side note about the chocolate... I used both Nestle semisweet chips (left) and Guttiard 72% bittersweet (right).

The Guttiard melted soooo much smoother than the Nestle, you can actually see the difference in the pic. I don't know if it's because of the % cocoa or the quality of the chocolate itself. Maybe I will try 2 versions of the same brand in the future just to find out. Either way, try to use the best quality chocolate you have on hand... your taste buds will thank you!

personal fritattas aka egg muffins

I love eggs. They provide such a great canvas for different flavors and meals. Whether scrambled, poached, or whipped up into omelets, I could eat them every day.  Like this morning, I wanted to use the last of the veggies sitting in my fridge, so I made some personal fritattas, which are essentially omelets made in a muffin tin. They're similar to the tortilla espanola I made last week, except smaller and with different veggies... but same general idea.

The beauty of this recipe is threefold: you can use just about any combination of flavors in it, they are easy to make ahead then grab and go as you need, and they're healthy! You can personalize these any way you like. Today I used cheddar, shallots, tomatoes, broccoli and bacon because that's what I had on hand. Leave out the bacon and make it vegetarian. Add more meat. Use onion instead of shallot. You can use spinach and feta, or ham and cheese, or sausage and cheese... use whatever combination floats your boat!

Personal Fritattas
makes 6*

9 eggs
1 tsp olive oil
2 shallots, diced
1 C broccoli florets
1 or 2 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
3 slices bacon, cooked crispy and cut into small pieces
1/2 C cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste
cooking spray
Special equipment: *large size 6-muffin tin (though you could use average size and eat 2 as a serving)

Preheat oven to 350. Spray the heck out of the muffin tins.

Heat oil in a small pan over medium heat and sautee shallots until soft. Set aside.

Microwave broccoli with a tbsp of water for 1 minute to precook them a little bit. Drain, and set aside.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper - remember your cheese is salty so don't over do it! Mix in the shallots. Pour half of the among the 6 muffin cups. Add the broccoli, tomatoes, and bacon to the muffin tins. Sprinkle with cheese. Add the rest of the eggs.

Bake for 25 minutes. They will rise, and then fall. Eat!

Or refrigerate them - these make a great grab and go meal. These will be my breakfast or snacks for the week. You can freeze them, too, to eat later. Heck if you want, you can make these in average or even mini size muffin tins, and make ahead for a brunch buffet, too.

tortilla espanola

I can't believe it's May already and I've gone this long without posting! I've been cooking, I swear. I have probably 3 other posts saved to finish later. But really I've spent most of the last couple months working my tail off. And vacationing in the Dominican. But mostly working, lol. My goal this month is to finish those other posts and get back to sharing!

While I know it's Cinco de Mayo today, and that's totally Mexican, I made a Spanish dish last night. As in Spain. As in the tortilla espanola, which is essentially a potato omelet. It's one of the simplest foods out there - eggs, potatoes, onions (if you like), oil, and some salt and pepper. For so few ingredients, the key is in the execution. This took forever to make (so set aside plenty of time!) because I cooked each step low and slow. Each part was soft and tender without falling apart, so each ingredient's integrity is maintained, yet balanced delightfully with the other flavors. See - you can see the different potato pieces in the tortilla. Yum!

Tortilla Espanola (with onions)
adapted from allrecipes.com

1 lb butter potatoes, peeled, halved, and cut into 1/4" slices
1 small Spanish onion, peeled, cut in half, and sliced into thin rings
8 eggs
1/2 C olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Heat 1/3 C oil in a large skillet over medium low heat. Add half the potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, until just fork tender. This takes about 20 minutes. Repeat with the rest of the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

If necessary, add a little oil to pan, and turn heat up to medium and cook onions until soft and golden - about 15 minutes. Add to bowl of potatoes to cool a bit. Add salt/pepper if needed.

Turn stove top heat down to low. Add enough oil to lightly coat bottom of pan so tortilla won't stick.

Beat eggs in a large bowl. Add potato/onion mix. Pour into pan and allow bottom and edges to set - about 10 minutes. Loosen edges and bottom with a spatula so it can slide out of the pan easily.

Here's where you need to work pretty quickly so nothing spills: Slide onto a large plate, top with another plate, flip over (so cooked side is on top), slide back into pan. Cook for another 3-5 minutes until cooked through and set in the center.

Remove from pan. Cool. Cut - I find cutting it into 8ths is good for a snack portion, cutting it into 6ths is good for a breakfast/lunch portion, or you can also cut it into smaller pieces if serving as a finger food. I like to eat this slightly warmed, but it's just as good room temp.

Baby Shower Cookies

Look how cute! They are ALMOST as cute as the mom-to-be :-)

Our girl, Genelle, is preggo. A few of us took on different roles to help throw her baby shower this past weekend, and of course I volunteered to do cookie duty! I wrapped them in individual baggies so guests could take them home as the favors. Since they don't want to know if it's a boy or girl yet, I went with some gender neutral baby shower themed sugar cookies. I am VERY happy with how cute they turned out. With some tweaking and practice, I can totally rock making decorated sugar cookies in the future.

I made sugar cookies with royal icing for a Daring Bakers challenge, but I used entirely different recipes this time around. I'm still tweaking them, so I'm just pictures to post at the moment.

Instead of royal icing, I used glacee icing. It's MUCH better tasting than royal icing and dries to a nice sheen so you can still stack cookies later.

Piping takes patience and practice. I'm still pretty new to it, but I doubt this'll be the last time I do it.

Can't wait to find out if they're having a boy or girl!

REEdiculous: shrimp caprese pasta

I spent Valentine's day with my bestest friend and we each decided to make something off our 2011 Hit List. It was my turn to do the main course, thus I recreated my favorite Olive Garden meal: Shrimp Caprese Pasta. Think cheesy cream sauce, tomatoes, basil, garlic, cheese, spaghetti, shrimp, and more cheese. It was absurd! Like you should probably only eat salad and fruit on the day you consume this to average it out :-)

Definitely calling this one a success. Unlike Olive Garden, my pasta wasn't overcooked, hehe. Salad would have gone nicely with this, but didn't want to distract from the cheese, lol. Mmmm cheeeeese.... That's a whole lot of melted mozz on top. Yep, I put the before picture after. Deal. :)

Shrimp Caprese Pasta

adapted from whatscookingamerica

1 lb roma tomatoes, cored and cut into 1" pieces
15 basil leaves, torn into 1" pieces
1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp italian seasoning
1 large pinch salt
2/3 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 box thin spaghetti
2 tbsp butter
1/2 C white wine
1 C heavy cream
1/2 C milk (I used 1%)
1 C freshly grated parmesan
1 C freshly grated mozzarella

Combine tomatoes, basil, garlic, olive oil, italian seasoning, and salt and mix well. Cover and allow to marinate for 1 hour.

Cook pasta according to the directions. Drain and put back in pot and cover while you make the sauce.

Preheat oven to 450. Melt butter over medium heat in a large nonstick skillet. Add wine and simmer for 1 minute. Add cream, milk, and cheese. Bring to a simmer, and cook, stirring reguarly, until it reduces to the thickness you want. (I should now note that while I made half the pasta from the original recipe, I made the regular amount of sauce and reduced it down about 1/3-1/2 so it was a thick cheesy sauce.) Remove from heat. Add spaghetti and tomato mix. Combine well so pasta is evenly coated. Transfer to an oven safe dish (I used a pie plate).

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and drizzle with a little olive oil. Spread the shrimp in an even layer. Roast about 3-5 minutes or until shrimp are pink and just slightly curled.

Turn oven to broil. Sprinkle mozzarella over the pasta. Broil until cheese is melted. Take out of oven and top with shrimp.